Bitcoin News Roundup May 5th 2016

This week, the unmasking of Satoshi Nakamoto made the headlines across bitcoin news outlets. Read on to find out what else made the news wire

BITCOIN DEVELOPMENT:

Opinion Divided on Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity as Australian Craig Wright

In the span of one week, the identity of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto was revealed, dragged through the mud and revoked. Cryptographer Craig Wright, provided proof behind closed doors to the BBC, Economist, and GQ in London, by digitally signing transactions of addresses from Block 9, one of the early blocks. In attendance was Garvin Andresen and Jon Matonis; both subsequently published blog posts affirming Craig’s claim.

The Bitcoin community lashed out at Craig in response to his claims, declaring only keys to the genesis block would suffice as proof, despite the possibility that keys could have been hacked, or shared or moved. Craig Wright responded with an apology letter, announcing he would not offer any more proof and would quietly retire from the public limelight.

Blockstream Adam Back Shares Core inspired Bitcoin Scaling Roadmap

Coinjournal reported Blockstream President Adam back, spoke at a Paralelni Pras in Prague, Czech Republic on the matter of scaling Bitcoin over the next 3 years. In his presentation, the inventor of hash cash emphasized five key steps to scale: Segregated Witness fork, Schnorr Signature Soft Fork, IBLT and Weak blocks, a block size limit increase Hard fork, and the Lightning network.

This plan would see the on chain transactions capacity of Bitcoin double over 3 years consecutively. Segregated Witness, the earliest of this changes, boosts capacity of blocks to 1.7MB. A pull request has already been implemented in Bitcoin Core and is undergoing test and review.

CONFERENCE EVENTS:

Former secretary US Treasury Larry Summers backs Bitcoin and Blockchain TechAt Consensus 2016, the 2nd annual digital currency and blockchain event in New York, Larry summers spoke at a fireside chat session on emerging technology, specifically bitcoin and blockchains. He revealed his interest in bitcoin since 2014, and why he now sits on the board of Digital Currency Group and Xapo.

Open minded about the outcome of current experimentation with distributed technology, Larry imagined a world where large banks like JP Morgan, adopt bitcoin alongside more traditional currencies, but emphasized wide adoption was necessary first.

“Bitcoin has the same character a fax machine had. A single fax machine is a doorstop. A world where everyone has a fax machine is an immensely valuable thing”

Gemini Trust Company, founded by the Winklevoss twins, was approved to begin trading Ether by the state of New York. Gemini, a digital currency exchange, currently only trades bitcoin; trading of Ether will begin on Monday 9, according to Reuters. The announcement on Tuesday by Governor Andrew Cuomo and approval by NY Department of Financial Services is a landmark for thestate, as the first consent for digital currency trading besides bitcoin.

Both Tyler and Cameron agreed

“It’s pretty clear that in the U.S. if you’re an exchange, you are required at the minimum a money transmission license in each state. Anybody who’s operating an ether exchange doesn’t have a license and is on borrowed time.”

New York State edge closer to approving Coinbase and Ripple Licenses

In 2015, the State of New York became the first to map out extensive rules for operating digital currency businesses. An exclusive on Reuters, reveals Coinbase and Ripple are close to locking down a license from the Department of Financial services, after receiving their applications on April 28. The BitLicense, is aimed at consumer protection and anti-money laundering measures; both companies, based out of San Francisco, have expressed their high regard for compliance.

A spokesman from Ripple said

“We are committed to being fully compliant with all state and federal laws and applied for the license to ensure we remain so”

AFRICA:

Bitcoin early adoption in Africa driven by remittances, online payments and trading

Writing for the Cointelegraph, Olusegan Abolaji conducted research on the reasons driving high trading volumes on p2p exchanges in African countries, particularly Kenya and Nigeria. In West Africa’s Nigeria, high volumes are mostly from remittances into the country at a time when the Naira has plummeted against the dollar. In contrast, volumes in East Africa’s Kenya, are from trading activity, online payments and funding e-wallets.

Kenya seems to exhibit more volumes, up to 2,600 BTC over the last year, while in Nigeria, volumes are hatching out, trading $ 37,500 in the past 4 weeks. Alongside South Africa, these frontier African economies represent the earliest adoption data from Africa.

ADOPTION

Swiss Town now Accepts Bitcoin for payment and public utilities

Bitcoin.com reported a the council of the municipality of Zuig, a small town in Switzerland, decided bitcoin will be accepted for public payments to the town as part of a trial run on acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Zuig, already plays hosts to Fintech startups in the digital currency space and has often been labelled ‘Crypto Valley’.

The Mayor of the town, Dolfi Muller said

“We want to express our openness to new technologies by expressing our own experiences (with bitcoin). We will invite Fintech companies in Zug to exchange ideas with the City Council. Our goal is to meet their needs for optimal development in our thriving economic environment.”